Calgary millennials say fewer people can buy homes as StatCan data points to downward trend

With Statistics Canada saying that millennials are living with their parents longer than previous generations and are purchasing fewer properties, some in Calgary say homeownership is out of reach.

That’s according to a recent Statistics Canada report that shows it’s a common trend among people aged 25-39 in large cities.

According to census data, 16.3 per cent of millennials were living with at least one parent in 2021, compared with 8.2 per cent boomers in 1991.

For those in their mid-to-late 20s, the trend of living with parents has increased considerably.

The rate of millennials aged 25 to 29 living with parents doubled nationally to 31.1 per cent in 2021, up from 15.7 per cent in 1991.

Calgarian Titan Steuart says he’s given up on becoming a homeowner.

“I think that less and less people in my generation are ever going to be able to afford housing,” he told CityNews. “Not only can we not afford one, but people don’t want to be planning for that long.”

Steuart says several factors contribute to the trend, a couple of them being home prices and wanting to live in a big city, but technology also plays a role.

“We want to do things; we actually want success. There’s never been another time in your life where you can pull out the thing in your pocket that has access to the internet, watch a motivational video, and say that could be me,” he said.

Jalissa Thacker says she’s confident she’ll be able to buy a home in a smaller town, just not Calgary. But she says for university grads looking to buy a home, it’s also challenging.

“Starting out, getting a job in that career — hopefully by 23 if you can. And rent’s so expensive, and everything’s gone up. Just hard to get a leg up out there,” she said.

Alternatively, Calgary lawyer Cameron Fynney says overall it’s become much more difficult to buy a home in Canada due to inflation and other economic factors. But adds that he’s just not ready to buy.

“I’m not looking to buy real estate right now. I’m happy renting,” he told CityNews. “I think buying real estate is when you’re ready to settle down, and I’m still working away, and I’m happy to rent for the time being.”

When asked if buying a home at a young age is a thing of the past, Fynney says it depends on how lucky you are.

“I know many people who got money from their parents to put down deposits and buy condos and houses at early ages,” he said.

“They’ve actually since used those houses or condos as a secondary source of income and are now renting themselves.”

StatCan suggests the housing market shift among younger Canadians is part of a broader societal shift — staying in school longer, entering the labour force later, getting married later and buying a home when they have access to the traditional dual-income household.

The steady shift of millennials living longer with their parents “cannot simply be attributed to more recent affordability challenges in some of Canada’s largest cities,” the agency said.

Meanwhile, delayed milestones have been in part compensated for by longer life expectancies for younger generations.

With files from The Canadian Press